At the site near Prokuplje called Pločnik, serbian archaeologists found evidence of what could be the oldest metal workshop in all of Europe. According to National Museum archaeologist Dušan Šljivar, experts found a “copper chisel and stone ax at a location near Prokuplje in which the foundation has proven to be 7,500 years old, leading us to believe that it was one of the first places in which metal weapons and tools were made in prehistoric times.” Archaeologists hope that this find in southern Serbia will prove the theory that the metal age began a lot earlier than it was believed to have, Šljivar said.

After the Last Ice Age most of Europe was I1,2. Old Europe, Cardium Culture and Western Europe had I1,I2 as dominant substratum into which neolithic farmers J2,E1&G inserted. So oldest bronze items were discovered in Vinca area, where I2a1 concentration is highest. I2a1 continuum is also very high in Cucuteni area but Sardinia is the area with highest I2a1 concentration after Bosnia, S of Croatia & W of Serbia.Consider the Nuragic Civilization, lasting from the Bronze Age (18th century BC) to the 2nd century AD. They were one of the Sea Peoples that wiped out most of Middle Asia, around 1300-1200Bc.

Butmir culture existed in Butmir, near Ilidža, Bosnia and Herzegovina, dating from the Neolithic period. It is characterized by its unique pottery, and is one of the best researched European cultures from 5100–4500 BC.[1][2] It was part of the larger Danube civilization. The Butmir culture was discovered in 1893, when Austro-Hungarian authorities began construction on the agricultural college of the University of Sarajevo. The finds caused interest among archaeologists worldwide. They were largely responsible for the International Congress of Archaeology and Anthropology being held in Sarajevo in August 1894. The most impressive finds were the unique ceramics, which are now found in the National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina.Certain characteristics of the Butmir pottery designs (e.g. its resemblance with Kamaresstyle Minoan pottery) made some suggest a connection to the Minoan culture on Crete. The Butmir culture was the home for several large settlements, among them was the site of Okoliste in Bosnia dating to 5200-4500 B.C. with a population size of 1000-1500 people. The settlement was largest in the early phase (5200 B.C) with an area of 7.5 hectare, from there it gradually declined to reach the size of 1.2 hectare in 4500 B.C. The site likely consisted of parallel rows of houses that ranged in size from four to ten meters in length.

Dating to the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, the nuraghe are megalithic towers with a truncated cone shape, which are widespread in the whole of Sardinia, about one nuraghe every three square kilometers. According to Massimo Pallottino, a scholar of Sardinian prehistory, the architecture produced by the Nuragic civilization was the most advanced of any civilization in the western Mediterranean during this epoch, including those in the regions of Magna Graecia.Sardinia, a land rich in mines, notably copper and lead, saw the construction of numerous furnaces for the production of alloys which were traded across the Mediterranean basin and nuragic people became skilled metal workers; they were among the main metal producers in Europe [8] and with bronze they produced a wide variety of objects and new weapons as swords, daggers, axes, and after drills, pins, rings, bracelets, typical bronze statuettes, and the votive bronze boats show a close relationship with the sea.The late Bronze Age (14th-13th centuries BC) saw a vast migration of the so-called sea people, described in ancient Egyptian sources. They destroyed Mycenaean and Hittite sites and also attacked Egypt. According to some scholars the Sherden, one of the most important tribes of the sea peoples, are to be identified with the Nuragic Sardinians.[12]Another hypothesis is that they arrived to the island around the 13th or 12th century after the failed invasion of Egypt.Archaeologists define the nuragic phase as ranging from 900 BC to 500 BC (Iron Age) the season of the aristocracies. The handicraft produced fine ceramics and more and more elaborate tools, and the quality of the weapons increased.With the flourish of the trade, metallurgy products and handcrafts were exported to every corner of the Mediterranean, from the Near East to Spain and the Atlantic. The huts in the villages increased in number and there was generally a large increase in population. The construction of the nuraghi stopped and individual tombs replaced collective burials (Giant’s Tombs). But the real breakthrough of that period, according to archaeologist Giovanni Lilliu, was the political organization which revolved around the Parliament of the village, composed by the heads and the most influential people, who gathered to discuss the most important issues. The nuragic people dominated Sardegna until they were defeated by the Carthaginians around 500 BC and forced to take refuge in the mountainous interior. The Carthaginians were defeated in turn by the Romans, and Sardegna became a Roman province. The nuragic civilization still maintained a separate identity until around 200 AD.

The Bonnanaro culture is the last evolution of the Beaker culture in Sardinia (c. 1800 BC), and shows several similarities with the Bronze-Age Polada culture of northern Italy. These have been connected with prehistoric settlements from the Italian peninsula through Corsica.[4] The introduction of bronze from the new people arriving from the mainland brought numerous improvements, such as in agriculture, in which more effective tools could be used, but also in war and hunting. To this period date the construction of the platformlike so-called proto-nuraghe. Throughout the second millennium and into the first part of the first millennium BC, Sardinia was inhabited by the single extensive and uniform cultural group represented by the Nuragic people. Centuries later, Roman sources describe the island as inhabited by numerous tribes which had gradually merged culturally. They however maintained their political identities and the tribes often fought each other for control of the most valuable land. The most important Nuragic populations mentioned include the Balares, the Corsi and the Ilienses, the latter defying the Romanization process and living in what had been called Civitatas Barbarie.

The most ancient settlements have been discovered both in central Sardinia and Anglona; later several cultures developed in the island, such as the Ozieri culture3200−2700 BC. Remains from this period include more than 2,400 hypogeum tombs called Domus de Janas, the 3rd millennium BC statue menhirs representing warriors or female figures, and the stepped pyramid of Monte d’Accoddi, near Sassari, which has some similarities with the monumental complex of Los Millares (Andalusia) and the later Talaiots in theBalearic Islands. According to some scholars, the similarity between this structure and Mesopotamian ones is due to cultural influxs coming from the Eastern Mediterranean.[3]During this period copper objects and weapons also appeared in the island. The altar of Monte d’Accoddi fell out of use starting from c. 2000 BC, when the Beaker culture, which at the time was widespread in almost all western Europe, appeared in the island.

Thus in Sardinia, the dominant I2a1 (+J2/E1/G) substratum, related to the Vinca/Cucuteni cultures via the Butmir Culture from Bosnia, Croatia, via the sea, was ”fertilized” around 2000bc by the R1b warriors coming from North via Corsica, to produce the Nuragic civilization. On the other hand it’s interesting to note that the R1b migrations coming to Europe from the Middle East through the N of Anatolia and Thracia, went AROUND Bosnia, where they probably met a I2a1 population too strong to go through. The I2a1 economy was based on agriculture, animal husbandry, fishing and trading with the mainland just as in Old Europe and already had metalurgy, R1b brought weapons&war, they came for the copper mines, they conquered military the island but they were absorbed by the substratum.

Haplogroup

I1

I2*/I2a

I2b

R1a

R1b

G

J2

J*/J1

E1b1b

Corsica

0

18.5

1

0

49

7.5

14

0

8

Sardinia

0

37.5

2

1

18.5

12

9

4

9.5

Croatia

5.5

37

1

24

8.5

2.5

6

1

10

Bosnia

3

55.5

0

15

3.5

1.5

4

0.5

12

Bosniaks

4

56

0

16

3

2

3.5

0.5

10

Bosnian Croats

0

71

2

12

2

1

1

0

9

Bosnian Serbs

2.5

31

2.5

13.5

6

1

8.5

0

22.5

Romania

4.5

26

2.5

17.5

12

5

13.5

1.5

15

Moldova

5

21

3

30.5

16

1

4

4

13

Kosovo

5.5

2.5

0

4.5

21

0

16.5

0

47.5

Above you can see present day percentages of Y haplogroups. We can see that the ‘farming’ substratum remained dominant in Sardinia: I2/39.5%+G/12%+E1/9.5%+J2/9%. R1b brought the aristocracies, but as I2a1 substratum remained dominant, the overall resulting civilization remained pretty much egalitarian. Present day Sardinian haplo structure is similar to Croatian percentages with 2 differences: Croatians received an R1a influx in second stages from Thracia & Pannonia, while Sardinians received the R1b influx from Western Europe through Corsica.I2a1: Vinca/Cucuteni> Butmir>Mediterranian Neolithic>Nuragic Sardinia>Sea People 1]Farming came to Old Europe from Middle East through J2+E1+G haplos resulting Old Europe with 2 epicenters in Vinca & Cucueni areas. 2]Bronze technology starts in Vinca/Serbia, Vinca farmers go West to the sea through Butmir culture. 3]When they hit the sea,they learn shipping technology and start spreading from Croatia to Italy and further, producing the farming Meditteranian Neolithic Cultures. 4]Cardinal culture in Sardinia 5000bc. Farmers arrive in Sardinia 3000Bc. According to wiki during this period copper objects and weapons also appeared in the island!!5]Around 2000Bc R1b warriors from Beaker culture arrive from N, through Corsica. They bring the bronze technology, they find in Sardinia the copper mines. wiki:the Bonnanaro culture is the last evolution of the Beaker culture in Sardinia (c. 1800 BC), and shows several similarities with the Bronze-Age Polada culture of northern Italy.

In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centers of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae. At its peak in 1350 BC, the citadel and lower town had a population of 30,000 and an area of 32 hectares. Some of the pottery and architecture (above picture) of older Nuragic culture, show resemblance with the Minoan culture. Between 1600-1200bc there were obvious commercial relations between the 2 areas.

In around 1200 BC the Sea Peoples produced the Late Bronze Age collapse. In the first phase of this period, almost every city between Pylos and Gaza was violently destroyed, and often left unoccupied thereafter: examples include Hattusa, Mycenae, and Ugarit.[3] Drews writes “Within a period of forty to fifty years at the end of the thirteenth and the beginning of the twelfth century almost every significant city in the eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed, many of them never to be occupied again” (p. 4). The palace economy of the Aegean Region and Anatolia which characterized the Late Bronze Age was replaced, after a hiatus, by the isolated village cultures of the Greek Dark Ages. The Sea Peoples from the north weakened and destroyed the Egyptians and the Hittites respectively. In the resulting power vacuum, a number of Phoenician cities rose as significant maritime powers to dominate the Medeterana.1200Bc – The Dorian invasion of Greece ends the Mycenian culture. Expanding R1b Hallstatt Culture is probably the main wave behind the Sea Peoples and the Dorians are one of those ‘Sea Peoples’ pushed down by the The Alpine Celts. The Iron technology produced the more competitive weapons, the R1b warriors mixed with growing populations from Sardinia, Sicily, S of Italy and Anatolia destroyed all the palace empires.

Egypt survived with great effort and Phoenicians were the only area NOT invaded in Levant. Phoenicia was the enterprising maritime trading culture the spread in Mediterana starting with 1550Bc, that dominated the Mediterranean shores from 1200BC to 300 BC, after the raids of the Sea People. Their civilization was organized in city-states, similar to ancient Greece. The Phoenicians were the first state-level society to make extensive use of the alphabet. The Phoenician phonetic alphabet is generally believed to be the ancestor of almost all modern alphabets. Through their maritime trade, the Phoenicians spread the use of the alphabet to North Africa and Europe, where it was adopted by the Greeks, who later passed it on to the Etruscans, who in turn transmitted it to the Romans. Phoenicia was an early example of a “world-economy” surrounded by empires. The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed c. 1200–800 BC.

# 1800bc-200ad Nuragic Civilization from the Bronze Age – metal industry; in 500bc Cartagina invades the island. # 1850-1600bc first Indo-Aryans invade Greece – the Ionians & the Aeolians – according to Eupedia this wave is mainly R1a, the Thracians, the Macedonians and the Mycenians are R1a warriors over Old Europe substratum.# The Indo-European invasions brought the Hittites 1750bc, the Lydians & Lycians 1450bc, the Phrygians 1200bc and the Proto-Armenians 1200bc. All were probably predominantly R1b-L23, considering its high percentage in the regions they settled.# 2000-1200bc Crete navy dominates Mediterana # 1600–1150bc – Mycene, aristoi palace society# 1194–1184bc legendary war of Troy# 1200bc –R1b Dorians are pushed south by Illyrians, end of Mycene & Crete, end of all Middle East empires. End of Bronze Age, start of Iron Age and start of Bronze Age collapse.# 1200-300bc – Phoeniciadominates the seas from. So first ‘Greek wave’ was R1a, the second was R1b, that is why Macedonians, Athenians, Spartans and Asian Ionians were never too united, having the Peloponesian war between Athens & Sparta and later Alexander conquered Athens and RAZED Thebes! # 750bc – starts the big Greek colonizations, Sparta rules the South, Athens rules the North of Greece.# around 700bc the Cimmerians are probably the last wave of migration from the Pontic Steppe. They push into Anatolia and later into Pannonia. By that time the Pontic Caspian steppe would have been thoroughly overrun by R1a people.

# 10.000-6.000bc, after last Ice Age, I2 goE to W, I1 go S to N to Scandinavia, from Danube/Carpathian area, to recolonize deserted Europe, following the ice retreat. #6.000-4000bc, J2+E1+G neolithic famers go fromE to Wand S to N, to spread farming in Europe, coming from Middle East, along the Danube and by sea. #4.000-2.000bc – R1b enters in Europe around the Black Sea, S&N of Black Sea, go over Romania from E to W, than to the W along the Danube. First base on Western shores of Black Sea, second base in Transylvania, final base above the Alps. R1b becomes dominant haplogroup in Western Europe. #3.500-1500bc – R1a goes W to E becomes dominant in Central and NE Europe.# 2.000-1.500bc R1b accumulation in W Europe, population grows. R1b becomes ruling elite, military dominant in Anatolia also. First tide which is not E to W: first Aryan migration to Greece – R1a fromN to S, over Romania – Thracians, Macedonians, Mycenians.# 1.200-1.100bc – the Hallstatt accumulation produce the first wave W to E, the celt explosion produces the Sea People raids in Mediterana. R1b Italics occupy N of Italy, Dorians end Mycenian & Mynoic cultures, Sea People end all palace empires in Anatolia. The First Dark Age of Europe ends aristocratic ‘civilizations’, destroy the cities, egalitarian/rural area begins. #700bc – Starting with the Cimmerians, the tide changes again, from now on there will be waves only from E to W – R1a Scytians, the Big Hun tsunami that will be the beginning of the End for the Roman Empire, the Goths that will bring the Second Dark Age and so on, Avars, Magyars, Mongols, Slavs (N to S), Turkish peoples…

Let’s take a look to the Eupedia neolithic maps:1] Expansion of agriculture (above)1.1] 6300-5800 bc: Old Europe and western coast of Italy – that implies expansion BY SEA from Croatia to W Italy, if we consider that the farming arrived to the northern shores of Adriatic Sea in a later phase1.2] 5800-5300 bc: Sicily, Sardinia/Corsica, NW shores of Italy, S shores of France and SE shores of Spain, all that BEFORE central Italy – this implies also expansion BY SEA to western Mediterana and Sardinia – the subject of this article. Thus the neolithic I2, E1, J2, G farmers seem to arrive to Sardinia by sea from Old Europe. The ‘Fenician’ route by sea around the N shores of Africa seems to be not so continuous at this time, to my logic it was developed in a later phase.1.3] Obviously the Croatian Alps were not inhabited in neolithic, but it is hard to believe for me that people were not able to travel over these mountains, so I guess we can talk about a link between #neolithic farmers from Bosnia – Butmir culture and #the Croatian shores, so we can talk about an expansion to W – Vinca >> Butmir >> Croatia by land than E of Italy >> Sicily >> Sardinia by sea

2] So we have farming in Sardinia by 5000bc according to Eupedia maps, now let’s consider the expansion of bronze technology, Copper Age.2.1] 5800-5000bc – Now this map is fascinating to me. For one, we see that copper technology appeared in Serbia and on the Lower Danube BEFORE spreading to Greece.2.2] 4000-3000 bc – Vinca&Lower Danube is the epicenter, from there Copper Age arrives to Croatia. According to wiki during this period copper objects and weapons also appeared in the island.2.3] Copper expands in Anatolia from ANOTHER epicenter, and in Pontic-Caspian steppes from a THIRD epicenter. At about 3500bc there seems to be a connection between all the 3 epicenters, around the Balck Sea, through the areas in between.2.4] 3000-2500 bc Copper expands to Central Europe than to N&W of Italy, the classic Celtic area. BY LAND not by sea, with R1b expansion up the Danube.2.5] Copper technology arrives from N to Sardinia by sea through Corsica, brought by R1b around 2000 bc.2.6] Here is a nice study on academia.edu about Sardinian bronze figurines, which dates the first famous bronzetti around 1200bc.Thus I can conclude/speculate:3.1] I2 basic layer arrived to Sardinia after last Ice Age and remained dominant according to present day percentages.3.2] farming and J2/E1/G haplos arrived to Sardinia BY SEA from Old Europe around 5000bc3.3] copper technology and R1b expanded up the Danube BY LAND to Central Europe than to Sardinia by sea through Corsica, around 2000bc

On Eupedia Forum sparkey: A recent study on 1200 Sardinians is raising a question. The type of I2 dominant in Sardinia is a young branch of I2-M26. The I2-M26 in Sardinia is not even one of the oldest haplogroups in Sardinia, see here: eupedia.com/forum/threads-2013. In addition, I2-M26 has its greatest diversity around France, not SE Europe, and every indication is that it diversified in Western Europe by the Neolithic. Some ancient I2-M26 from Neolithic France have been found already to help substantiate that. It branched from I2a1b, nowadays dominant in SE Europe, well before it spread to Sardinia. Not that I2a1b spread from SE Europe itself; it seems to have spread from farther west as well, based on both modern diversity and ancient samples. adamo/eupedia: Haplogroup I-M26, the “Sardinian” I2a variety, is found in 40-45% of Sardinian males for example; most people do not realize it is also about 19-20% of Spanish Castillan male lineages in Central Spain. In fact, the very center of Spain, the countries nucleus has a high of 33% hg I. Most of Portugal has 5-10% hg I. But Spain has 10-30% I across most of the country. This means that these men certainly moved from southeastern Europe towards Central Europe, then to Iberia, from where they arrived in Sardinia. sparkey/eupedia: The days of supposing an I2-M26 origin in Sardinia are over; it’s clearly a founder effect there. Iberia has significant diversity, considering that the most common subclade (L160+) has high diversity there, and an outlier (L277+ L247+) is found there. See Cullen. That could indicate that most modern I2-M26 passed through Iberia, at least northeastern Iberia near the Pyrenees. However, it’s worth noting that the greatest I2-M26 outlier is in fact German, as is a cousin of the Iberian outlier, indicating that before arriving in Iberia, it was indeed in or around Germany, or at least expanded that direction as well between the end of the Ice Age and the beginning of the Neolithic. adamo again: That is correct. It actually seems to have arrived in central Spain/Castile where 33% of males are I, and 20% of it is I-M26 like in 40-45% of Sardinians. About 10% of spaniards are I on a national level though. There was probably an I migration from the Balkans to Central Europe a very long time ago.From there, it would move towards central Iberia. From here it somehow reached Sardinia.wiki on Sardinian people : Sardinia was first colonised in Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic from Iberian and Italian peninsulas, during the Neolithic from Italy, Spain and Aegean [farming], during the Early Bronze Age by Beaker folk from Central Europe and Franco-Iberian area [bronze technology]. i-m26.blogspot.ro : According to most theories, Haplogroup I is associated with Gravettian culture. The western Gravettians were responsible for the cave paintings at Lascaux, and other sites in France. I-M26’s Overlay with the Distribution of Megaliths. Conclusion:It is likely that small groups of megalithic mariners influenced greatly the religious, political, cultural (and physical) landscape of the lands to which they ventured during the Neolithic. M26 is a strong candidate for the marker of a “single population of colonizers, navigators and cultivators” (Cavalli-Sforza 1995) which likely originated somewhere in the vicinity of the Pyrenees shortly after the LGM. As Cavalli-Sforza noted, “the Megalithics may have even been a priesthood or some kind of prehistorical aristocracy, who had good ships and perhaps good weaponry, as well as a much more advanced understanding of astronomy and architecture than their contemporaries.”